From field to factory, our hats are made in the UK by independent knitwear company Highland 2000, based in Nottinghamshire, England.
Using UK-produced yarns and supplies, they strive to support UK farmers. The main source of wool is from hand-sheared sheep.
Experienced wool-sorters grade the wool and select the best quality based on length, colour and thickness for worsted wool spinning.
The wool then goes through a process called 'scouring' which involves water and a safe light detergent to remove oil, dirt, vegetables and any short or dead fibres.
The next step is to comb the fibres to ensure the wool is ready for dyeing and gilling. The wool is gently dyed to avoid damaging the fibres and enhance the wool's colour. Gilling allows multiple colours to be dyed into the wool allowing rich, heather, melange colours.
Then it's onto 'drawing' the first process of spinning. The wool becomes yarn and is spun and twisted to ensure ultimate strength and softness for knitting.
When the yarn arrives at the factory in Nottinghamshire, it is knitted using the latest Stoll machines to create a knitted fabric.
This fabric is steam pressed and then 'linked' on a special linking machine and each hat is then 'bartacked' to fix any loose ends and add strength where needed.
The hat is then labelled and hand-finished with our bespoke Effected signal icon.
